Can you earn money by betting on elite new buildings in the city center? Or is the limit of dreams for an average player just a minimal increase in their salary at a factory or office? Does the possibility of winning in betting actually exist, or are these discussions just a marketing tactic used by numerous bookmakers to attract new customers into their networks?

Let’s try to reason and attempt to answer these and some other questions that arise from the ones already asked, by separately considering different categories and groups of players, starting from inexperienced beginners to seasoned betting experts.

Beginners and their prospects:
In this category, most individuals have a very superficial understanding of the essence of the betting industry. They are not familiar with the intricacies of betting, may not know which bookmakers to use or avoid, have little knowledge about which bookmakers will allow them to win and which will restrict their winnings. They may not have a grasp of how to profit and earn in betting “by the book,” let alone various technical nuances and details. Therefore, here, luck takes center stage, and the potential profit is limited to the maximum winning amount allowed by a specific bookmaker. Professional bookmakers may allow one to win a five-figure sum in foreign currency with a single bet, while most bookmakers (both legal and illegal) will offer no more than a few hundred thousand rubles at best.

Regarding Russian-speaking bookmakers, it is essential to clarify that they will allow larger winnings only as long as they are confident that the bettor is an amateur (bookmakers have mechanisms to detect professional players) because inexperienced players, not familiar with bookmaker mathematics, do not pose a threat to the bookmaker’s financial well-being over the long run.

The Variety of Beginners:
However, beginners come to the world of betting with varying levels of knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Some have been following football since the sixth grade through the archives of “Sovetsky Sport” and know the line-ups of all the second division “West Zone” mid-table teams. Some play football (tennis, basketball) themselves and are familiar with the mechanics of the game. There are those who understand mathematics, and of course, there are those who came in just because of naivety and a desire for easy money.

Thus, individuals from the first categories seemingly have a higher chance of winning due to their sports knowledge. After all, wouldn’t someone who is more informed about the state of affairs in sports have an advantage? The answer is no. Because over the short term (we are talking about beginners here, so we consider short distances, maybe just one or two bets), everything depends solely on luck. You can thoroughly analyze an upcoming match, taking into account various factors potentially influencing the final result, but fatal misfortune for the favorite and the incompetence of the referee awarding a decisive penalty in the added tenth minute can easily crush your ironclad arguments with life’s banalities.

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In summary, the most appropriate answer to the question “how much can a beginner win in sports betting” would be “it depends on chance.” If we talk about specific winning figures over a sufficiently long period and exclude occasional big wins (e.g., from a ten-ruble bet with a 1000 coefficient), then a beginner might win… very little, because a consistently winning beginner is no longer a beginner but rather a player of a higher level who has already learned from their losses and is self-sufficient.

Recreational Players:
In recreational betting companies, both beginners and players seasoned with years of battles with bookmakers can be registered, up to professionals. Recreational bookmakers will not allow constant winning, meaning they will not allow players to live off their winnings. Professionals or even experienced and savvy players could easily enrich themselves on a regular basis through weak lines in such companies (mainly on outcomes with low market coverage), having an advantage over the bookmaker in terms of information and knowledge. However, since bookmakers are not charitable organizations, they identify such players and limit their maximum stakes to a safe level for the financial well-being of the company.

Until the player’s account is limited, they may win… in various ways: in legal companies, one should not count on winnings exceeding a couple of tens of thousands of rubles (and this is a very optimistic forecast). Some places (for example, bet365) may tolerate a plus game within a few thousand USD for quite some time. However, the logical outcome of playing in such companies is an inevitable limitation of the account when your betting style is identified by the bookmaker’s security service as non-recreational. Recreational betting companies are a haven for those who use betting for leisure and entertainment, not for earning a living.